Amazon blows for video games

I've bought a handful of video games this year and my local Gamestop seems to have trouble getting new games on release day ("sorry, UPS didn't show up yet, maybe tomorrow") and for the popular games, they insist on pre-ordering with a deposit. Since Gamestop was a hassle, I started ordering stuff on Amazon instead, usually a month or so before big games came out.

For the most part, it's worked well except items ship on their release date instead of arrive. I know a lot of games are done and in boxes, ready to ship weeks ahead of release dates and it sure would be nice if Amazon could ship them a day or two before release date so they show up on time. I know that's a minor problem, but it's tough waiting 24 hours when everyone online is talking about a game that's available down the street at a store.

Lately though, Amazon has been a big problem with popular games. I've had a couple games delayed by 1 week and 2 weeks respectively and Amazon doesn't inform you until the actual release date of the game. So if you pre-order a month or so early and you're thinking you are going to get the game shipped on day 1, you don't find out until that day arrives that they ran out. It's really unfortunate, since I guess Amazon has no idea what their supplies will be like when they start taking pre-orders. Today I got this message about Guitar Hero III (PS3), which got released today:

"Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle" [Video Game]
Estimated arrival date: 12/31/2007

I pre-ordered a month and a half early and they estimated it would take anywhere from 1 to 2 additional months to get a copy of the game sent to me. That's pretty ridiculous and why I won't be buying video games from Amazon anymore.